Elon Musk: As Automation Eliminates Jobs, Universal Basic Income Becomes an Economic Necessity

It’s widely accepted now that as robots and automation penetrate more industries, certain roles once held by humans will become obsolete.

This, of course, has an upside and a downside. Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX—companies at the forefront of technologies that can replace humans—says that for automation to not ruin economies, a “universal basic income” is necessary.

“I think there’s a pretty good chance we end up with a universal basic income due to automation,” Musk told CNBC. “I’m not sure what else what would do. I think that’s what would work.”

“People would have more time to do more complex things, more interesting things,” Musk added.

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